I don't know wheather this topic belongs here. However since this is a pocket pc phone edition forum I thought it better to post this here so that those of you undergoing trauma over configuring the bluetooth dongle are spared the agony. Well to start with the device I have is an i-mate with windows pocket pc 2003 running on it. Recently I acquired Widcom USB bluetooth dongle. Configuring it was a nightmare. Thanks to David who had given a post elsewhere part of the problem was solved.
The issue is when configuring bluetooth with windows XP you need to emulate the bluetooth connectivity as a serial port. That's how active synch sees it. If by mistake one ends up installing com ports greater than 9, active synch throws in the towel and you will never know what happened. This is because of a bug in active sych I am told. Even active synch 3.8 is no good in this regard.
Now the second bug is that there is no way you can retrieve the ports you have configured earlier. It goes on incrimenting and by the time you end up with com44 your face would have gone as blue as the light in the dongle or pda.
So as per David there is way to delete these 'Ghost' ports by making these Ghosts visible by setting the following environment variable C:>set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1
Then in the device manger Checking View->Show Hidden Devices. This should bring up all the Ghosts out.
However in my case this did not happen. Only two additional ports were visible. These were port 15 and 17. Rest managed to remain hidden. Now how do we know that?
Well here is what you do. In the device manager open the branch Ports-Right click on communication port (COM1) -> Properties and then click on port setting tab. Click on Advanced
At the bottom you see a drop down box called com port number. When you open this you will be surprised to see all those mystery com port marked as "(in use)". So you are stuck as to what to do with these. HERE IS THE TRICK
TRY TO RENAME COM1 WITH ANY OF THESE PORTS IN USE. CLICK OK. COME BACK AND RENAME THE PORT BACK TO COM1. VOILA !!! :) THE PREVIOUS PORT IS NOW FREE. REPEAT THIS TILL YOU HAVE ALL THE UNWANTED PORTS FREE. REBOOT YOUR MACHINE AND COOLY INSTALL THE WIDCOM DRIVER OR WHATEVER. YOU WILL HAVE PORTS LESS THAN THE MAGIC NUMBER 10 AND EVERYTHING STARTS WORKING BEAUTIFULLY. BILL GATES ACTIVE SYNCH IS ALSO VERY HAPPY.
Well that's it. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE THIS COM PORT DATABASE IS KEPT?. It is not in the registry. Does anyone know how to connect your PC to the internet using the wireless modem emulator in the PPC and bluetooth?? Pse help
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